


Phlox and Hibiscus

by TheFandomLesbian



Series: Spencer's Raulson One-Shots [52]
Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Not Season 8 compliant, Pre-Relationship, foxxay - Freeform, goodeday, raulson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23192068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFandomLesbian/pseuds/TheFandomLesbian
Summary: Misty has isolated herself since Cordelia brought her back from hell. Cordelia seeks to rekindle their friendship and perhaps something more and invites her to go flower shopping.
Relationships: Misty Day/Cordelia Foxx | Cordelia Goode
Series: Spencer's Raulson One-Shots [52]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1214643
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	Phlox and Hibiscus

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt requesting pre-relationship Foxxay going flower shopping.

A hand reached out to Misty and drew her back to the surface of the earth, and for the first time, she gazed into the true eyes of her Supreme. She was speechless when it happened, her tongue still caught somewhere between a scream and a sob, and she could say nothing but to sink into Cordelia’s soft, loving arms. 

She kept dreaming about those arms. But she couldn’t bother Cordelia, not now that she was the Supreme. She was lucky that Cordelia had decided to waste the time to bring her back from hell. So Misty spent the days of her fourth life in greenhouse and the yard, growing the herbs the school needed for potions and botany classes, and otherwise steering clear of everyone and everything. She had never been one for the busy life. She preferred her solitude. 

Some part of her wanted to go back to the swamp, knowing it was safe now. But she didn’t. She wouldn’t get to see Cordelia in the swamp. That was worth all of the sleepless nights in the world to Misty. 

Quiet footsteps disturbed her where she worked at snipping the thorns from a blackberry bush for a potion Cordelia planned on having her students do in a few days. She lifted her head from the leaves and unripe berries. “Hey.” With a wave of her hand, the record player stilled. She only muted Stevie for Cordelia. She didn’t want anything to separate her from Cordelia’s voice… not even Stevie’s voice. “What’s up?” 

“You’ve been out here a lot lately,” Cordelia said to her, tilting her head. “Are you alright, Misty? I’m worried about you.”

Misty pawed a hand through her hair. “Nah, I’m alright. Thank you, though, Miss Cordelia.” She popped one hip up on the table and grinned. “What’s up? You ain’t poking around here just because you’re worried about little ole me, are you?” 

Cordelia smiled. She reached out to take one of Misty’s dirty hands. “Well--actually, I was thinking we should move some of this out into the yard, what with spring. It’d be a lot more sustainable to have extra space. But growing things does seem to be  _ your _ area of expertise.” 

Misty was flattered. True, she knew how to grow some things, but others, she had learned solely from Cordelia. “Well… depends. What are you thinking about planting?” 

“Anything.”

“Vegetables? Flowers?” 

“Flowers.” 

“Flowers,” Misty repeated. “Do you want natural wildflowers? Perennials?” 

“Yes.” 

It didn’t occur to Misty that Cordelia was agreeing with almost everything she said. “Alright. I know a little flower shop on the outskirts of the swamp--they’ve never failed me. They’ll get us set right up. Do you know the pH of this soil?” Cordelia blinked back at her in shock. “That’s alright. I’ll get us some stuff and test it, and then we’ll know where to start. Where are you thinking you want the garden to go?” 

“Er…”

_ Did she think about this at all before she came to talk to me about it?  _ Misty pursed her lips and tilted her head. “I mean, the old fire pit might be a good start. Fertile ground. Anywhere that the zombies got buried last year. Decomposition is good for plants. We can start a compost pile.”

Cordelia bobbed her head in agreement, agreeing with all of Misty’s suggestions, though she was really just putting things out there in the hopes of getting a material response. Cordelia had the idea for a garden, but she didn’t have any opinions on it?  _ Strange. _ “Miss Cordelia, are you quite alright?” Misty asked. Cordelia blinked in surprise. “I mean… I dunno, if you want a garden, seems like you’d have some idea of what you want in it.” 

Tilting her head, Cordelia shrugged. “I thought you might have better ideas than I do,” she provided, speaking slowly. “Do you want to go now?”

“Right now? Don’t you have Supreme things to do?” 

“I think I can postpone them for a spell.” 

_ There’s something odd up in here.  _ “Alright,” Misty agreed, because Cordelia was beautiful and because she had nothing better to do. She missed getting to spend time with Cordelia like she had before the seven wonders. “Let’s go.” Cordelia held the keys out to her, and Misty accepted them, not thinking twice about it; she knew where the shop was, and Cordelia didn’t. 

As she cranked up the car, Cordelia put a CD in the stereo. Fleetwood Mac rolled forth in familiar chords of “Rhiannon” and a smile touched Misty’s face. She wanted to ask Cordelia  _ why _ , but she didn’t.  _ Are you going to tell me what this is really about? _ She didn’t ask that, either. She was grateful for any bit of attention she could get from Cordelia, even if it was forced and had some underlying cause she had not yet identified. 

Cordelia broke the silence between them. “So--how have you been?” 

_ Uh.  _ “The same, more or less.” It was lonely, but Misty didn’t care for crowds. “I cleaned out Spalding’s attic. Been sleeping up there. Did you know that guy had a collection of antique dolls?”

“I--I did not know that. Why are you sleeping up there?”

“It’s quieter,” Misty said nonchalantly. “Antique dresses, too. And boppies. A lot of baby stuff, actually… Did you know he was so strange?” 

“He didn’t talk.” Cordelia brushed off her broodings on Spalding. “Don’t you like your room?” 

“Oh, I did, but I gave it to one of the younger students. What’s her name? Lou? She’s a bedwetter, and her dormmates were making fun of her. I let her have my bed and moved upstairs. There’s also a window, and you can climb right out it and sit on the roof.”

Cordelia paused. “Do you do that a lot?” she asked. 

“Almost every night.”  _ Is the interrogation over now?  _ “I see you out there sometimes,” Misty added thoughtfully. “You always look a little lost.” 

“Why don’t you ever come down?”

Misty considered. “I dunno.” It wasn’t that she didn’t want to spend time with Cordelia. She definitely did. “I reckon cause I figured if you were out there alone, you wanted to be alone, and I didn’t want to bother you. You did enough for me without me badgering you.” 

“You could never bother me, Misty. I’m here for you.” Misty kept driving. Cordelia reached out to her and touched her knee. The warm hand almost made her flinch, but she suppressed the reflex, desperate to keep from hurting Cordelia’s feelings. The human touch curled in her lonely insides. “You’ve been spending a lot of time alone. I miss you.” 

Shooting Cordelia a sideways look, Misty frowned. “You miss me?” she repeated, trying not to sound too skeptical, but she feared she failed. 

Cordelia worried her lower lip with her teeth. “Well, yes… You haven’t been around as much as you were before. I miss getting to spend time with you. I worry that you’re alone too much.”

“I don’t like crowds,” Misty confessed. “I’m not into the whole--whole teaching the world thing. And you’re busy. So I was just trying to make myself scarce so I didn’t bother anybody. That’s what I’ve always done.” She had always retreated to her swamp when she needed to get out of the way of other people. There was nothing unusual about it for her. “Figured you did me enough of a favor getting me outta hell. Last thing I wanna do is clutter things up for you some more.”

“Misty…” Cordelia paused. “You can’t clutter things up for me. Why do you think I got you out of hell?”

“Because you felt really guilty that you didn’t see your own power until it was too late and I got eaten because of it?” Misty guessed. She had been operating under that assumption. 

Cordelia paused. “Well… I mean, you’re not wrong. But it was because I missed you,” she said softly. Her honey-hued eyes rested on the side of Misty’s face. “I want you to feel like you can come to me… I want to spend more time with you.” 

Misty thought about it for a moment. She found it hard to believe that a woman as magnificent, magical, powerful, mystical as Cordelia could ever want anything to do with her, let alone had the capacity to miss and desire her presence. “Like dragging me out to help you pick out flowers for a garden you don’t actually want?” she ventured. 

Her brows quirked together. “I do want the garden. I thought it would be something nice for us to do together. But… I also wanted to make sure you were okay. Somewhere that we wouldn’t be interrupted.”  _ That’s a good point.  _ Misty couldn’t think of the last time she had spoken to Cordelia that it hadn’t been interrupted by somebody accidentally lighting something on fire or bursting in on them, and every time, Misty slunk away in defeat and left Cordelia to handle the Supreme business, thanking her lucky stars that she hadn’t been the one cursed with the power to rule over the coven. She wouldn’t have been nearly as good at it as Cordelia was. “Do--Do you really dislike having the crowds?” 

Unsure what to make of this question, Misty brushed it off. “I dunno. It’s just overstimulating, that’s all. I’ve always preferred to go my own way. Don’t really like kids. And frankly those girls can be cesspools of drama. But they’re our responsibility as a coven. I know that. I just gotta get away from ‘em sometimes.” She licked her lips as she took an exit to leave the city and head out to the swamp. It was a good forty-five minutes outside of New Orleans, the store she was taking them to. “Once it’s warmer and less rainy, I’ll probably take some days in the swamp. But my shack’s got holes in the roof, and I’m not one for getting dripped on while I’m trying to sleep.”

“I’ll go,” Cordelia volunteered. Misty looked over at her. “I mean,” she added, softer, “if you want some company… I wouldn’t mind going with you.” 

“Alright.” Misty was in no position to deny Cordelia anything. “I’d appreciate that.”

Cordelia never took her hand off of Misty’s knee. Misty liked having it there. 

She pulled up into the gravel parking lot of the small flower shop, where a small old man with white hair greeted them on the porch, watering a hanging fern. “Long time, no see, Misty!” He reached out and gave her a hug. “I seen y’all on the news, the lot of you. You wanna introduce me to your friend?” 

Misty grinned. “This is Cordelia. Cordelia, this is Mr. Washington. We’re looking for some native perennials to put in our yard.” 

He brightened. “Well, then, you’ve come to the right place. We just got a shipment of blue phlox!” He led them into the modest store, and Misty followed him, inhaling the sweetness of the flowers on the air. “You’re looking for flowers, aren’t you?” Misty nodded. “That makes sense, two pretty girls in love.” Misty opened her mouth, prepared to stammer out an answer, but she glanced at Cordelia, whose face tinted red. They exchanged a glance, neither one managing to correct him. Cordelia smiled at him. “Feel free to look around! The phlox will always be my recommendation, but you already knew that, Misty.”

“Thanks, Mr. Washington.” Misty picked up a sapling of a phlox bush that had not yet begun to flower. “Do you have any luna hibiscus?” 

“You bet I do.” 

She followed his pointing finger to another sprout. “These grow to be beautiful,” she promised Cordelia.  _ Like you,  _ she wanted to say, but she bit her lip. Cordelia held her eye contact. Their eyes didn’t waver. Misty felt particularly brave, since Cordelia seemed to be waiting for her to say it. “Like you,” she added. 

Cordelia’s cheeks flushed. “Or like you,” she whispered, like a secret. 

Misty reached to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “If you say so.”

“Oh, I do.” 


End file.
